"I'm a boomer but I really like emergents. Really. Most of the responses to my columns are from emergents and of course all of my students fit this age group. I like emergents - perhaps too much. Recently I was asked how I'd fare if I left the classroom and had to jump into pastoring. My response: “I'd probably do OK with those under 30 but I might be ineffective with the older more traditional people.” I spend just about all of my time with emergents and I really like you a lot."
branthansen:
"Gentlemen, Start Your Mass Chaos
This so messed-up.
There's this guy, uh, 'Dave', who has an idea he thinks would actually work for a reality TV show to air next month.
Dave thinks reality TV is so boring, so cliche, that it needs something to shake it up. I'm ashamed of Dave's idea. How tasteless can you get?
Dave says America would go for this. I, of course, say no way, our country has not sunk this low. He thinks it would get great ratings. I think he's on drugs for even coming up with this idea for a show:
It’s the night before the Daytona 500. All the NASCAR fans are parked in their RV’s, partying it up in the infield before the race. It’s crowded and festive.
In comes a garish, pink RV, with flashing pink lights. It has flowers on it, and California license plates. It takes its place in the center of the action. Ten guys flamboyantly come out, wearing pink cut-offs and tight outfits and stuff. Then they unfurl a huge, easily-read sign.
The sign has a big pink number “3” on it, in familiar NASCAR font. The sign also says: “HE WAS ONE OF US.”
Viewers are clued in ahead of time that the ten guys are actually plants: the ten highest-rated martial arts experts in the U.S. But none of the NASCAR fans knows that. We just watch the evening develop. Live.
Dave says don't even tell him you wouldn't watch that. Yes, there are insurance issues. Yes, the pink guys would have to have to be wearing Kevlar polos or something. And yes, it’s tasteless, which is why I’m so ashamed of Dave for conceiving this. I’m right there with you, pretty dang offended.
I worry about Dave's mind sometimes.
Sicko."
Mr. Martin himself has shifted all over the map in recent years — on ballistic missile defence, on same-sex marriage, on the Clarity Act. In the run-up to the election in June of 2004, we wrote: “We wish Mr. Martin had afforded himself the opportunity of an 18-month tryout before going to the polls. Now the voters have the opportunity to impose a probationary period themselves.”
Mr. Martin did not pass that 18-month probation. He doesn't deserve the public's opprobrium, or an electoral wipeout, but neither has he earned the right to a fifth Liberal term. A spell out of power would give the Liberals the time they so clearly need to renew themselves.
In that same 2004 editorial, we characterized Mr. Harper as “a product of Central Canadian caution and Alberta's can-do frontier mentality.” But, noting his propensity to “respond to challengers withquiet contempt and truculence,” we expressed doubt that he had “matured into a truly national leader.”
There is greater reason to feel comfortable with Mr. Harper today. He has shown himself to be an intelligent man and one, in this campaign at least, who has learned to master his emotions. He has gained control of a party inclined to fly off in all directions, moved it to the centre and proposed a reasonable if imperfect governing platform. His targeted tax measures are measured, his defence policies are sound, and his approach to waiting times is worth experimenting with.
His pledge not to use the notwithstanding clause on same-sex marriage provides some comfort, as does his promise not to reopen the abortion debate. In both cases, he has demonstrated a deft political touch, giving something to his base but leaving himself ample political room to steer clear of unn"
"ELECTION PANEL: WEEK SEVEN
WARREN KINSELLA
Former Liberal advisor
Let's recap: Beer and popcorn. RCMP criminal investigations. Likening opponents to animals. OSC and SEC investigations. Whiplash-inducing flip-flops. Leaked platforms. Constitutional amendments dropped in the middle of televised debates. An attack ad that defames the military and is a flat-out lie. Candidates attacking their leader and their own campaign.
That's the Liberal Party of Canada, folks -- and just in the past few weeks. That doesn't even include what Paul Martin has done to the Liberal Party since he took it over in December, 2003. There's only so much stuff I can fit into the space the Post gives to Mercer, Crosbie, the scary-smart kid and me.
The numbers will shift around a little bit in the next few days, but the fundamentals won't change: Stephen Harper will ride a wave of change into the subsidized housing unit at 24 Sussex. Paul Martin will join John Turner and Kim Campbell as historical footnotes. I say this as a card-carrying Liberal who intends to vote for my local Liberal MP: The Liberal Party of Canada deserves to lose. We need a spell in the penalty box -- to get a new leader, new ideas, new caucus members. We need renewal.
If a Stephen Harper minority is the best way to achieve that, that's a-OK by me."
"January 15, 2006 - This new Conservative Party commercial amply demonstrates, yet again, the Tories' superior strategic smarts in campaign 2005-2006. It also demonstrates why Paul Martin's campaign is worse than a disaster. It's now actually really, really sad.
Let's just vote and get this over with, I say. Martin's self-immolation is getting hard to watch."
Is there something religious about the current state of memoir-driven literature? This idea that one must experience something personally in order for it to be valid? That these experiences must be dramatic and debauched? The publishing world seems to think the book would not work as fiction. Neither would it have sold - in the current climate at least - if Frey had copped to his banal and relatively comfortable upbringing. A life of unthinkable sin before conversion is what is needed. Do these mythical stories which Americans love find their way into news copy? Are reporters more biased toward dramatic conversion stories?Link
- Forget Wikipedia, if Chuck Norris wants you know something, he will tell you.from Jordan Cooper's Blog
- Chuck Norris' tears cure cancer. But he has never cried. Ever.
- Chuck Norris does not sleep. He waits.
- Chuck Norris is currently suing NBC, claiming Law and Order are trademarked names for his left and right legs.
Brea and I had started reading "A Million Little Pieces" by James Frey after hearing a lot of good things about it. Come on, Oprah couldn't put it down - it MUST be good.Police reports, court records, interviews with law enforcement personnel, and other sources have put the lie to many key sections of Frey's book. The 36-year-old author, these documents and interviews show, wholly fabricated or wildly embellished details of his purported criminal career, jail terms, and status as an outlaw "wanted in three states.link
at lease this one I know I'll like.... I hope
